


Stories of the Second Self: Wrong Closet to Monster In

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [96]
Category: Police - Fandom, Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:27:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22608505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: In the short lull between coming home from work and having to take her son,Terry to school, Jolene thought to relax briefly. Yet, that was not to be, when Terry woke up to tell her something was in the closet. Suspect it to be another imagery friend, Jolene sends Terry back to bed. With a sudden crashing of a door and then a window, she realizes that a break-in had happened in the mortuary she and other vampires lived in. Along with dealing with the intruder, Jolene has to cope with suspicion by the police.
Series: Alter Idem [96]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Wrong Closet to Monster In

Another workday was over, which for Jolene meant coming home at around four in the morning. With shorter days, Jolene could schedule her blood pickup after dropping Terry off at school, and so she took the couple hours in between to just relax.

Except, her son, Terry came out rubbing his eyes. "Mom, there's something in my room."

"Didn't you say goodnight to the monsters under your bed and in your closet?" Jolene asked, as she and Terry had worked out the ritual to deal with night terrors.

"I can't say goodnight to the closet monsters, 'cause the other thing is in there," Terry replied with.

Seeing that Terry didn't seem alarmed, Jolene's brow furrowed at that, "What kind of thing? Is it a new monster?"

"I guess so," Terry said, "It's got fur all over it, and is bigger than my stuffed monsters.

Jolene figured this was Terry's way of either asking for a new stuffed animal, or just deciding to have an imaginary friend, when she said, "Well, just ask for its name and that way you'll make friends."

"I did," Terry answered, and looked back at his room. "I think she said Larrra."

Terry tried to growl out the "r" which made Jolene smile at his creativity, but Jolene needed him rested for school. "Okay, just go back to bed."

Without complaint, Terry turned around and Jolene watched him shuffle back. His full length pajamas included covering his feet, so Jolene heard scraping all the way back into his room.

Being a vampire, Jolene wasn't physically exhausted so much as mentally. Putting her EMT certification to work, she'd gotten a job at an all-night clinic. That meant receiving more unpredictable patients, including those circulated to her from city and county law enforcement. Tonight's excitement involved one of those cases with drug rehab. Jolene was the only person at the clinic in a position to do anything about a raging PCP addict.

Possibly, that's why she was fully prepared for the sound of a door breaking, Terry screaming, and then a window shattering. Jolene bolted from her recliner and raced to Terry's room, to be joined by Karen and Mikey. Ramsey, Gordon and Quinn weren't home.

Terry tore out of his bedroom straight into Jolene. "Mom!"

"What is it?" Jolene asked kneeling down, but watching Terry's door.

"The monster, Larrra," Terry said, again emphasizing the primal sound.

"Who busts into a home where six vampires live?" Mikey asked.

"A seventh?" Karen speculated.

Hearing no other sounds in the mortuary, turned communal house, Jolene scooped up Terry to follow Mikey and Karen into Terry's room. True enough, the closet door was torn off its hinges and his window shattered. Karen went looking into the closet and rose up having picked something off the floor.

"What's that?" Mikey asked.

"Like," Karen paused before doubting her discovery. "Fur?"

"Fu...," Mikey just about blurted out, and then revised his exclamation, "Friggin' howlers."

"I'm checking the grounds," Jolene announced.

"I'll get Terry up in the attic and secure him there, and come out to help," Mikey said, and took Jolene's son onto his own hip. "Okay, Terry this is a new kind of hide and seek game."

"Mikey?" Jolene prompted, getting the burly vampire man's attention, before she said, "He's older than that. It's okay to tell him you're getting him to a safe space."

"Right," Mikey accepted and went for the stairs.

With Terry out of earshot, Jolene vented her own expletive, "Goddamn werewolves. Why here?"

Karen went to her room and, after a minute, came back with a Glock.

Jolene remarked on that, "Silver bullets?"

"Too expensive, especially now," Karen answered, "But it'll still hurt like hell, and maybe still kill the prick."

"Terry said it was a she." Jolene led the way out the front door into the night. "Should have guessed something was wrong."

Because of Ramsey's mist spell, not even street lighting offered much illumination on the historical mortuary grounds. Werewolves had pretty good night vision compared to humans, Fae, giants, angels, but Ramsey's casting created a darkness only a vampire eyes could pierce.

Karen followed closely behind, until Jolene thought about it, looked at Karen's gun. Shrugging it off, Jolene started to circle the house. They came to the back stairwell that led to where mortuary work had once been conducted in a basement, and found that door clawed up and the doorknob broken.

"Son of a bitch," Karen cursed, "I just had that replaced."

Without warning, a night shadow dropped from above, and a thud impacted behind the two undead women. Jolene whirled around with a start, only to see Mikey there and hit him in the chest.

"God!" Jolene was too edgy for this shit. "Couldn't you just use a door?"

"Sorry," Mikey whispered, "But the window was right there, and I figured this is the first place they'd break in."

"What makes you say that?" Jolene wondered, turning toward the stairs.

"Punk kids on a dare," Mikey answered. "That's what it was last time."

Mikey took the lead, as the trio crept down to the basement. They all had on their shoes, so none of them were unusually stealthy, though if it were a howler the sense of smell might render an unnaturally quiet step of bare feet useless.

Reaching to his beltline, Mikey brandished a knife he'd gotten from the kitchen. Mikey being a buff vampire, had Jolene wondering if a knife would really make a difference, but he was still a guy after all.

With a gentle fingertip, Mikey pushed the door open and went in. Jolene and Karen followed him into what had once been the main reception area for bodies. There were several doors leading off to other rooms, and so the three vampires split up. Jolene opened another door a crack and peeked in. She thought she heard a scratch and froze on the spot.

A moment's listening revealed nothing, so she passed through the door, only to see the thermally glowing body of a therianthropic werewolf. "Shit!"

Realizing it was discovered, the werewolf lunged at Jolene. She barely had her arms up when she was knocked to the ground with the howler atop her. It rose one arm up, and Jolene knew it was going to start thrashing.

Jolene pushed hard, more out of panic, and the werewolf was thrown high against the wall at the opposite side of the room. Then, Jolene got back up on her feet and ran over to where the werewolf landed.

Furiously punching, Jolene screamed at the intruder. "Fucking come into my son's room! Fuck you! Want some more, bitch?"

The yelping and cowering wasn't enough for Jolene to back off. Not until she felt Mikey's armed around her hoisting her back from the brawl did the werewolf get a reprieve. Though, Jolene still thrashed against Mikey's hold.

"Jesus!" Mikey backed all the way to the unlit room's door. "It's down! You got it, Jolene! Fuckin' relax already!"

Karen was already in the room also, and had her gun pointed at the howler, who just stayed curled up into a ball whimpering. Glock in one hand, Karen pulled out her phone, and the screen coming on brightened up the whole room to Jolene's eyes.

"Yeah, I need the police here please," Karen said into the phone and then gave the address. "Yes, that place again. Please, this is important. We have an intruder, and she's still here."

It took almost half an hour for police to arrive, with Karen staying on the phone with the 911 operator to direct the police down to the basement. The first cop through stopped in alarm at how dark it was, and that three adults stood there facing him.

The beam from his light shook, revealing how unsettled he was. "Okay, who called this in?"

"I did," Karen answered, and then pointed. "The intruder is in that room there."

A woman in plain clothes and a badge on her belt line came in next. Scattered light from the first cop's flashlight revealed red hair on the woman. "Detective Carpenter, Pentacaste Division."

"What's that?" Jolene asked, picturing some pagan police unit.

"Detective," the other officer called out. "They weren't kiddin'."

"Why would we be kidding?" Karen narrowed her eyes at the detective.

"Just a moment," the detective said, and went into the side room.

"I think she's on something," the uniformed cop said.

Jolene went into the room, curious about what the officers were seeing. The intruding werewolf had shifted back to human form, and was stark naked with fresh bruises all over. Detective Carpenter's hand made some sort of gesture over the intruder's eyes.

"It's not drugs," Carpenter said, "It's some kind of potion, but it's a new one on me.

"They have Walter," the werewolf girl said.

"What?" Mikey said, having stepped in behind Jolene, and he added, "We don't have anyone here. Who's Walter?"

"Miss, you need to tell us your name," the uniformed cop said.

"Laura," she replied and struggled to get up. "Someone took Walter."

"Do any of you know a Walter?" Detective Carpenter asked.

"No," Jolene answered, shaking her head with confusion.

"So it's just the three of you here?" the detective pressed on, as she stood up.

"Seven of us," Karen answered, "Six vampires and Terry."

"Who's Terry?" Carpenter's tone sharpened appreciably.

"He's my son," Jolene replied, "He's human."

"What?" the uniformed cop doubted, looking to the other officer. "How's a vampire have a kid, human or otherwise?"

"Ah," Jolene waved her hand to choose her words. "I had him before I died. I still have custody, if you need to see the judge's paperwork."

One of the things Jolene learned about herself after waking up in the middle of her own funeral is that vampires didn't have DNA anymore, so even if she wanted additional children it was impossible. Which meant no pure-born vampires would exist.

Detective Carpenter gave her a skeptical eye, but appeared to let that go, and resumed more pertinent questioning. "So, you don't know why she broke into your home?"

"I thought she was after my son," Jolene seethed, ready to dole out another pounding.

"We keep getting break-ins," Mikey explained.

"Sir, just a moment," Carpenter waved him off with a hint of impatience. "I'll talk to you after I'm done here."

"Walter is a Fae," the werewolf Laura blurted out, sounding very much out of it.

"Have you had a Fae here before?" Carpenter asked the three of them.

"Last Fae we had to deal with was her ex-husband." Mikey waved toward Jolene, and folded his arms. "Though, we-- settled that."

"Sir, keep your hands in plain view," Carpenter again hardened her tone.

Mikey looked around at everyone, but did as he was told.

"Officer," Karen started, and then corrected herself, "Detective, we don't know what she's on about. She was hiding out in Terry's closet, and we don't know how she got in, only that she's destroyed two doors and a window. What are you going to do about that?"

"Who's the executor of your estates?" Carpenter addressed Jolene again, but the question was meant for all of them.

"I can get you her name," Jolene replied, "She's a fiduciary at Kemba Credit Union."

"Why's that even necessary?" Karen griped.

Being black, Karen knew profiling for much longer than Jolene or Mikey, and Jolene could tell she was put off by the grilling and suspicion.

However, the detective relented. "Okay, we can arrest her on the force entry and property damage, though your fiduciary will have to present in all hearings and questioning. Any civil suit brought against the suspect will have to go through them."

Jolene nodded solemnly as if she had been read her rights. "Yes, I understand.

The very next sound was the ratcheting of cuffs onto the naked werewolf woman, who stepped erratically when directed out by the uniformed officer. Left in the gloom of the basement, which the vampires could see well in, Jolene shook her head slowly.

"I'm going to ask Ramsey about this," Jolene proclaimed, "Make sure this so-called Pentavaste Division is a real thing."

Ramsey was still a practicing attorney, which was its own interesting legal fight that he had with the city and state. However, Terry remained safe, and Jolene learned for certain that her human son was in better hands of vampire roommates than with living strangers. She'd planned on a a dog, but Jolene had put that off, after being dissatisfied with the dogs she'd looked at so far.


End file.
